Kemo's Creative sampling:

Pick any object you like (preferably something that is your own property) and get some way of recording audio (minidisk, DAT, even the PC/Mac if you can move the object or the computer to the object etc).

Now hit it, scrape it, tap it, smash it (preferably after you have done all you other samples from it) throw it onto various surfaces, kick them about, put the bits into various containers and shake/hit that, infact do anything to them that will make some noise or sound from this object (within reason)

Now chop the bits up into various chunks and load them into your sampler and attempt to make a complete track from just these sounds (drums, bass, pads, synths etc). Don't use any other sounds or 'real' instruments but use 'all' of your samplers features and as many plugins as you wish. You may find that your samplers options aren't sufficient, so go back to your sample editor and process the sounds, copy and paste in more detail, reverse, chop bits out etc then reload them into your sampler. Certain sounds like hihat and snares are fairly easy to create but stuff like nice lush, smooth pads are often more difficult. Looping samples, using envelopes, LFO's, filters etc with a purpose of trying to get a certain sound rather than putting a filter on 'to see what it sounds like' will give a far greater understanding of your samplers functions than just tweaking for fun and stopping as soon as you get the first nice sound.

Once you have completed your track you will hopefully have more understanding about your samplers functions, general synthesis techniques and sound creation. This is also a way of making your look differently at your sampler and sample libraries. Use the sampler as a creative instrument rather than a 'sound playback module' and dive deeper into your samplers functions. You can be sure your samples will be unique and you will start to develop your own sound rather than sounding like everyone else with a sampler and a few sample CD's.

Micek says:

KRS-2 says:

My tip for sampling is simple, sample everything you can get your hands on! If you can afford to, get yourself a cheap small, portable sampler. You can also use a portable mini-disk or dat recorder. Now sample away. I use a roland JP-808 for getting samples. I found it second hand for very cheap. I probably don't use a fraction of what the sampler has to offer but I also am the new owner of a EMU sampler and also use reason for a soft sampler. Anyways, the more samples you have, the more creative you can get with them. You may not use all, or many, of them, but you WILL find that one great sample that sweetens up that track that needs a finishing touch. After getting samples from movies, tv, old records, cd's, etc, clean them up in your favourite sample editor (sound-forge for me) dump them into your sampler of choice, and sequence away.

Klaseed says:

For the thickest basslines imagineable, resample your bassline. Put a chorus on it to taste, then run it through a modulated high-pass filter. Pan it out to the sides in your mixer, and you've got a deep and moving bassline.

Funky says:

Be creative! Be creative!
Be creative! Be creative!
Be creative! Be creative!

You can use Recyle, Phatmatik, your hand or whatever to mangle your content.

It doesn't have to be a rhythmic loop. You can mangle everything, produce stutter effects and even strange sounding melodic lines. One thing samplists often forget is to be creative with their content: usually you treat a "true" sound as it is, NOT! distort it, reverse it, filtrate it, stretch it, transpose it, speed it up or down, modulate it with an lfo or two, mix it with another source, resample it! Use every tool you have at disposal (even your wife can be a tool!) to make your sounds original and not sounding out of the box...

Happy sampling!

AndreasW says:

Samplists often restrict themselves to sampling synths and other instruments in conventional ways, but all you really need to make a nice synth sound is tone. Anything that hums, vibrates, clangs can become musical at the hands of a good programmer. Take for instance your crummy old pc monitor. A huge psu will often send out 50/60hz mains hum. record it, gain it, loop it and pitch it, and presto, a neat pulse+noise synth! Some more tips:

- Adding peak filter resonance or a tight bandpass filter to your sound can help enhance the fundamental and/or harmincs of the sound.

- Tight, tiny loops can produce tone in almost anything.

- Do you have an old piece of kit at home? Chances are it'll make some cool noises just standing there when the gain is high...

-For metallic IDM sounds try sampling a key ring with loads of keys in it. Toss it back and forth between both hands.

-And remember your sampler is not only as good as the stuff you put in it. In the right hands anything can sound cool.

try to cut a little piece of your old tracks and use them like sample in new track. It could be interesting, right?